After the fiasco of siting the Chiefs' baseball stadium in a no-man's land ... it's time that Syracuse caught a break.

Call me naive, but I cling to the belief that the decision on replacing the crumbling I-81 viaduct is going to be made in the long-term best interests of the city. This is, after all, the most important civic decision of the past 60 years or more. It will shape the city for as long as most of us are alive. Given that Syracuse could use a Red Bull energy jolt, we need a solution that will position the city for growth and livability, one that will make an optimistic statement about our future.

But storm clouds are gathering. Now that the end game in this lengthy deliberative process is approaching, my hope for statesmanship looks imperiled. The special interests are massing, and the lobbying is well underway.

Two weeks ago journalist Teri Weaver reported that owners of businesses along the Hiawatha Boulevard and Seventh North exits from I-81 met with state Commissioner of Transportation Joan McDonald. The state DOT and the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council (SMTC) are charged with making the final decision on the future of the I-81 viaduct.

One of those persons at the meeting was Bruce Kenan, a partner with Bob Congel in Destiny USA. They are concerned about the option to tear down the viaduct and reroute traffic around the city so as to create an urban boulevard reuniting downtown with Syracuse University and the medical complex. Were that to happen, they fear I-81 would no longer deliver a high-speed stream of automobiles through the city to their businesses.

We ought not be surprised that in weighing what's best for the city with what's best for Destiny, the Congel crowd would choose Destiny. After all, Destiny has sabotaged the viability of downtown Syracuse and threatens all other retail and eating establishments in the three-county area. But I had never so clearly imagined I-81 as Destiny's private highway to mainline customers to its front door. I am surprised Kenan didn't ask for a new exit that would deliver cars directly into Destiny's parking lots. Maybe he did. The public and the press were not at this meeting with Ms. McDonald and the business owners.

Then last week another special interest -- the Onondaga County Legislature-- weighed in, not that anyone was asking it to. The members voted unanimously for keeping the highway intact so that it could efficiently deliver suburban commuters to their jobs in Syracuse. No matter that I-81 skirts every city other than Syracuse along its entire 855-mile path. Kathleen Rapp, R-Liverpool, asked that planners keep the federal highway "coming through our city and not going around our city." Her city, however, is clearly Liverpool, not Syracuse. She is prepared to sacrifice Syracuse.

The Legislature's vote comes from a group who oppose a commuter tax on these suburbanites to help the city's finances. They refuse all discussion of consolidation to improve Syracuse schools. To them Syracuse is just a source of jobs for their suburban residents. The Legislature gives new meaning to the words "selfish," "self-centered," and "short-sighted." (By the way, when is the Syracuse Common Council going to vote unanimously to tear it down, and thereby counter the County Legislature?)

Is it futile to hope that this decision will be made strictly on the merits by the SDOT and the SMTC? Is it already a done deal that Congel and the County Legislature will get their rebuilt commuter artery slicing through the city?

I agree with the conclusion reached by the Onondaga Citizens League (OCL) way back in 2009. After a lengthy study, the OCL pushed for rerouting through-traffic and creating an urban boulevard around Almond Street that would be pedestrian friendly and home to all sorts of new apartments, parks, and businesses.

They also noted the growing trend in San Francisco, Milwaukee, Portland, Ore., and other cities to demolish eyesore highways in downtown areas. And they noted the value of expanding Syracuse University and the medical complex into downtown.

But that report came four years ago, and as the deliberative process grinds on and on and on, the special interests are striking back.

After the fiasco of siting the Chiefs' baseball stadium in a no-man's land, and after betting the house on a Destiny USA theme park and hotel complex that never materialized, it's time that Syracuse caught a break. In its 2009 study the OCL quoted Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution on how we should be approaching this decision: "Demolishing the highway and replacing it with a boulevard...would send a strong signal that Syracuse is serious about competing in the 21st century economy, and that its leaders and citizens alike have the will, energy and vision to reinvent the physical infrastructure of their community."